January 7, 2010

Notable Quotes II

NOTE: The Old Man’s “Notable Quotes” category was becoming very populated. Who knew so many folks would be providing so many opportunities! At any rate, I’ve started a new page for 2010, aptly named “Notable Quotes II”. Depending on the material available, number III may show up by mid-year. We’ll wait and see. You can click on the following link or the button in the right sidebar for the original “Notable Quotes”.

Original “Notable Quotes”

Below you will find some quotes from different people that are/were relative to current and recent headlines. I feel these are worthy of repeating. The category is titled “Quotes of the Day”. In addition, I’ve included a category of supposedly famous quotes that I find applicable to many things today. Surprisingly, this category is titled “Famous Quotes”. Finally, you will find some general quotes, of which many are my own. These are simply titled “The Old Man’s Contributions”. I hope you find these interesting.

To read quotes in a particular category, click on that title under “Categories” and it will jump you to that category. Notice there is a jump link at the bottom of each category group to return to “Categories”.

Disclaimer: For the “Famous Quotes” category, The Old Man accepts no responsibility of historical accuracy.

(The latest entries are at the top of each category.)

Categories

Quotes of the Day

Famous Quotes

The Old Man’s Contributions

Quotes of the Day

“Democrats — and the country — would benefit from a responsible opposition party. I’m still looking for evidence of one” – Ruth Marcus in Boehner’s cheap opposition strategy

“When [Republicans] say they can reduce taxes and trim deficits at the same time, they are either deluded or deceptive, and they are playing voters for fools.” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in Why Won’t the GOP Say ‘No’ to Extremism

“We needed to have the press be our friend. We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer, so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported.” Republican candidate Sharron Angle who is running against Harry Reid in Nevada.

“We must place priority on reducing the deficit, say Republicans and “centrist” Democrats. And then, virtually in the next breath, they declare that we must preserve tax cuts for the very affluent, at a budget cost of $700 billion over the next decade.” – Paul Krugman in America Goes Dark

“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics

“…The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.” Alex Carey, Australian social scientist

“I’ve read up on the primary candidates who want to take back government, take down government, burn down Washington. I’ve seen all of it, I hear all of it and I don’t believe any of it. A rose is a rose is a rose — and hypocrisy is hypocrisy” – Anne Applebaum in A Government of the People’s Every Wish?

“The Republican agenda as sketched out by [John] Boehner was more of an absence of Democratic policies than the implementation of Republican ones” – Ruth Marcus in Leader of the Not-Democrat Party

“[Balancing the budget] could never happen here because the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich” – E.J. Dionne Jr. In American Politics, Stupidity Is the Name of the Game.

“If we cannot as a nation move away from ideologically stimulated tribal warfare and scapegoating, we are in for a very unpleasant future” – Retired Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs

“For big business to now claim that the government is ‘anti-business’ is like the umpire complaining about how badly his game was refereed” – Kathryn Kolbert

“Rather than ‘all for one and one for all,’ the United States’ business leaders have adopted more of a ‘one for one and all for me’ approach, detrimental to our country’s economic recovery” – Amy L. Fraher

“Corporate executives excuse their inexcusable refusal to hire more workers and invest in new products and technologies with the tired old saw that it’s all the government’s fault. The Wall Street financial crisis has brought the economy to its knees and now the corporate sector has the audacity to blame government for the catastrophe?” – Elizabeth Sherman

“Those deficits, as anybody who follows the economy well knows, are due to three things primarily–the Bush tax cuts, the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the financial crisis caused primarily by the four decades of Reaganomics and his deregulatory mania” – Linda Beale

“[CEO’s] are disappointed the president isn’t defending them. [They] wish Mr. Obama would be their partner. [Obama’s boys] chuckle at CEOs who worry about the deficit, and then seek cuts in their taxes” — The Wall Street Journal

“If Republicans win Congress in November, it’s a good bet that the wealthiest Americans will keep their tax cuts. If the Democrats hold the Hill, it’s unlikely” – Frank Ahrens in Latest U.S. Economy Data Puncture Hopes of Steady Recovery

“I think there is an element of fear that ‘our white country’ is now being run by a black man” – Amy Gardner and Krissah Thompson in Tea Party Groups Battling Perceptions of Racism

“In case you forgot what Republican governance was like, Joe Barton reminded you” – Rahm Emanuel in Obama to Keep Heat on Barton

“With [Elena] Kagan’s confirmation hearings expected to last most of the week, Republicans may still have time to make cases against Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Gandhi” – Dana Milbank in Kagan May Get Confirmed, but Thurgood Marshall Can Forget It

“[Texas Republican Jeb] Hensarling told a Texas-size whopper — and then tried to claim Republican credit for Bill Clinton’s budget surpluses.” – Fact Check in A Texas-Size Whopper

“Even if you’re not into conspiracy theories, it’s hard to ignore the common thread running through these recent crises: the glaring failure of government regulators to protect the public” – Steven Pearlstein in Time for Industry to End Its War on Regulation.

“Look beyond Buffett’s old-timey outsider shtick, the circus of an annual meeting, the notion that all he does is drink Cherry Coke and play online bridge with Bill Gates and [you will find] Warren Buffet is just another Wall Streeter” – Duff McDonald in Unwarrented: Does Buffett Deserve His Outsider Rep?

“Oil traders driving super-luxury cars such as a $130,000 Aston Martin” – Sara Gay Forden and Doron Levin in Traders Rev Up Aston Martins, Maseratis as Supercar Taboo Fades.

“He is the very personification of his much-reviled ‘cultural elite.’ He is Newt Gingrich, and he is out to get himself” – Richard Cohen in Newt Gingrich, Provocateur in Chief.

“The elites don’t really believe we’re still in recession. Or maybe, they just don’t care” – Harold Meyerson in Deficit Hawks Ignore the R-Word

“Once public opinion got engaged, it blew away the lobbyists, the money, campaign contributions. Public opinion drove that bill.” – Representative Barney Frank on the financial reform bill.

“These guys want to be paid like rock stars when all they’re doing is lip-syncing capitalism” – President Obama referencing Goldman Sach’s Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of Wall Street bankers.

“The financial reform bill will determine whether Wall Street’s banks will serve the American economy or whether the American economy will continue to serve Wall Street’s banks” – Harold Meyerson in A Patch for Wall Street’s Bad Habits.

“The American people have a right to know who has received $2 trillion of their money, and they have a right to have the GAO do an audit about potential conflicts of interest. The Fed has operated in secrecy forever, and they are now playing a role significantly different than they have in the past” – Brady Dennis and Perry Bacon, Jr. in Effort to Expand Audits of Fed Picks Up Steam in Senate

“Make as much money as you can without going to jail” – from With Financial Reform for Wall Street, Fair Is Fair

“What took party leaders by surprise is that the anger here is directed not at President Obama, but squarely at Bennett” – from Republicans in Utah direct anger at former party favorite Bennett

“By ruling out a VAT when it could keep the federal deficit in check, politicians have all but guaranteed that the debt crisis, when it comes, will be more damaging. But by then, everyone will be clamoring for a VAT, so it will be safe to endorse it” – David Ignatius in The VAT may resolve debt crisis, but for politicians it’s too soon to be right.

“The Senate has shriveled into a body that routinely thwarts majority rule. The Supreme Court has ruled that big money can dominate our elections as never before. Do we think that no one outside our borders has noticed? don’t conservatives realize that China is making hay in the developing world through a combination of throwing its wealth around and arguing that American democracy is little more than a veneer for plutocracy?” – Harold Meyerson in A Flawed American Political Model Aids China

“While the economy doesn’t function for most of us ordinary workers, it yields considerable reward for those at the top” – Linda Beale

“It is ironic that Democratic pollsters Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen felt “compelled” to “challenge the myths” about public attitudes on health care by simply restating one of the most commonly stated — and patently wrong — Republican myths. No pollster, including me, could look at the recent data and responsibly say anything other than that the American public is closely divided when it comes to supporting or opposing various health-care plan. The most recent Washington Post poll (from Feb. 10) shows a narrow gap between support and opposition: 46 percent favor; 49 percent oppose. This data is consistent with eight of the 12 most recent independent public polls reported on Pollster.com ” – Joel Benenson in Most Americans Want Health Care Reform.

“We learn that Goldman Sachs and other banks conspired to inflate the price of mortgage-backed securities well into 2007, even when they knew the true value was falling, only marking them down in value after their own hedging strategies were in place” – From Steven Pearlstein’s reflections on the book “The Big Short”

“Efficient market theory dominated economic thinking from the days of Ronald Reagan to the collapse of 2008. It was the rationale for deregulation, the cause of a massive transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to a tiny number of the very rich. Now it is dead and gone but Republican politicians won’t let go, and many in the media show no understanding of the issue.” From Republicans Are Locked in a Passionate Embrace with a Corpse and Won’t Let Go

“The problems of ‘freshwater’ economics–the school personified by Milt Friedman and the extremist ‘free market’ ideology that views government as the enemy, the ‘markets’ as always right, and any public role in economic development as ‘socialism’.” – Linda Beale in The Chicago School — Why Does Anybody Still Listen To It?

“If you had any doubt, any doubt whatsoever, that the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe, those doubts were erased today. Republicans across the country have cheered on crowds where these very images appeared” – Perry Bacon Jr. in Republican Fundraising Document Portrays Democrats As Evil

“Like earthquakes, Goldman Sachs can strike anytime. Its work can slumber undetected for years, only to erupt, unanticipated, with catastrophic consequences” – Harold Meyerson in Wall Street’s Finacial Aftershocks

Today’s Capitalist – “The government has all the responsibility, but no control over us or claims on our profits” – Author unknown

“It’s not too late for [Virginia Governor Bob] McDonnell to renounce this kind of socialism” – from [More Corporate Welfare] – Northrop Grumman Moving Headquarters to Maryland

“If [legislators] are extorted by any kind of pressure or promise, express or implied, direct or indirect, in the way of favor or immunity, then the giving or receiving becomes not only improper but criminal” – ex-Republican Senator Warren Bruce Rudman quoting President Theodore Roosevelt in Republicans Losing Their Way on Campaign Finance Reform

“Inevitably and predictably, the new senator from Massachusetts — Mr. 41, Mr. I-Drive-A-Truck, tea party poster dude — has disappointed his base by, alas, representing his constituents” – Kathleen Parker in The GOP’s Misguided Hunt for Heretics

“The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can’t afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that’s their problem” – Steven Pearlstein in At Summit, Republicans Prove They Aren’t Putting America’s Health First

“It should tell you everything you need to know that, in lobbying to retain its bank supervisory powers, the Fed’s allies include the big Wall Street banks. Do you really think those banks would be fighting to preserve the status quo if they thought the Fed would turn around and suddenly become more aggressive in its supervision?” – Steven Pearlstein in the Fed Should Stay Out of the Bank-Supervision Business

“I remember, as vividly as if it were yesterday, when we had a hearing in which Alan Greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes, saying that we didn’t really need to pay down the debt” – Hillary Clinton

“Never have so many members of the House and Senate behaved so well for so long before so many television cameras. That’s probably because their teacher carried a big rhetorical paddle.” – From Rep. Joe Barton (Republican) during the Health Care Reform summit.

“Half-baked justice; inadequate and misguided; very modest” – U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff remarks on the SEC’s final fine for Bank of America.

“The common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill founded Jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another.” – From George Washington’s Farewell Address that has been read in Congress for 117 years on Washington’s Birthday. No lawmakers, Democrats nor Republicans, were present when it was read on Monday, February 22, 2010. Published in From the Bluest of States, a Red Senator of a Different Color, talking about how Senator Scott Brown (R) voted for the jobs bill, highly disappointing the GOP leadership and most members of the Republican Party. But Republicans “favored [the bills] content”. So much for Brown’s admiration by the other Republicans.

“In the long run, establishment Republicans are destined to disappoint [the tea party movement]” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in What Fuels the Grass-Roots Rage

Finally — a high-level Republican admits to the 8-year spending craze under the Bush administration: “Armey said in an interview that tea-party activists will gravitate toward Republican candidates only if the GOP shows it has been ‘rehabilitated’ following almost a decade of increased government spending under President George W. Bush.”

“The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision last week giving American corporations the right to unlimited political spending was an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in Supreme Court ruling calls for a populist revolt

“These are the men and women who placed politics above the long-term needs of the country and rewarded their own narrow constituencies, rather than serving the national interest” – David S. Broder on Senate’s rejection of forming a fiscal commission.

“The Supreme Court has opened the door to a new era of big and possibly shadowy election spending, rolled back anti-corruption laws and emboldened critics of fundraising limits to press on. In the middle of it all will be voters, trying to figure out who’s telling the truth. The court’s ruling Thursday lets corporate America start advertising candidates much as they market products and tell viewers to vote for or against them” – Sharon Theimer in Will Corporate Ads Buy 2010 Voters?

“It was wrong because nothing in the First Amendment dictates that corporations must be treated identically to people. And it was dangerous because corporate money, never lacking in the American political process, may now overwhelm both the contributions of individuals and the faith they may harbor in their democracy” – Editorial from The Washington Post

“The day the Bush administration took over from President Bill Clinton in 2001, America enjoyed a $236 billion budget surplus — with a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. When the Bush administration left office, it handed President Obama a $1.3 trillion deficit — and projected shortfalls of $8 trillion for the next decade. During eight years in office, the Bush administration passed two major tax cuts skewed to the wealthiest Americans, enacted a costly Medicare prescription-drug benefit and waged two wars, without paying for any of it” – What Karl Rove Got Wrong On the U.S. Deficit

“They backed the truck up to Fort Knox in broad daylight. They emptied it out, we rescued them and they get $150 billion in bonuses” – Andy Stern, president of the Services Employees International Union, as quoted in Wool Anger Over Wall Street Bonuses By Governing How They’re Handed Out

“The pols don’t want to mess with institutions that have real power, are sources of campaign contributions and can offer lucrative post-public-office employment” – Allan Sloan in “Let Wall Street Run Wild, Without My Money”

“By the way, these S Corporation shareholders are mostly comprised of the “small businessmen” that the right-wing anti-tax crowd constantly claims is overtaxed. Hmmmm. Looks like the bigger issue with this group is noncompliance, not overtaxation” – Linda Beale in S Corporations: GAO report, recommendations regarding noncompliance

“A huge, unregulated boom in which almost all the upside went directly into private hands, followed by a gigantic bust in which the losses were socialized” – from a review on John Lanchester’s book, “I.O.U. – Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay”

“Will the Tea Party crowd come out against taxes on banks and finance in the name of their libertarian principles? If they do, what kind of populists are they? After a year in which progressives played defense, it’s time to call some bluffs.” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in Obama Needs To Cut His Wall Street Tag

“Interesting that Cheney should bring that up (Obama releasing Gitmo prisoners). It happens that at least two men who were released from Guantanamo appear to have gone on to play major roles as al-Qaeda lieutenants in Yemen. Who let these dangerous people out of our custody? They were set free by the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney” – Eugene Robinson in Dick Cheney’s lies about President Obama

“Though we do have taxation with representation, it surely isn’t taxation with representation of all. It’s taxation with representation of those who can afford to pay for the influencing of legislation, including tax legislation, and especially tax legislation” – James Edward Maule in A Tax Policy Determination Clue

“I suggest that if you can provide yourself with a better-than-average living without working, a very rare luxury indeed, you are in fact rich” – Tom Bozzo in The Rich *Are* Different

“When the Republicans wanted to enact huge tax cuts for individuals and businesses in 2001 and 2003, they realized that it would result in long-term deficits of unforgiving amounts [color added]. So they scaled back their package with a gimmick–a sunsetting tax provision that, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother, caused everything to go back to its former (natural) state on the stroke of midnigh — midnight 2010, that is. Thus, they were able to claim that their package of cuts was much less costly than it would be if their plan to make the cuts permanent before 2010 rolled around materialized. It was smoke and mirrors—‘we’ll do this and claim our cuts are cheap; once the cuts are enacted, we can accuse anyone opposed to making them permanent of raising taxes and no one will remember it was our gimmick to cover the real cost of the cuts’” – Linda Beale in Tax Gimicks then and now – sunsetting tax cuts; temporary tax hikes

“This has been a moment for individuals to make war on one another” – Dan Balz in For Democrats, health-care debate exposes deep wounds

“If the Republican Party had its way — and God sees to it that it doesn’t — the country would by now have reverted to the barter system and the unemployment rate would be around 25 percent. The GOP economic program simply does not exist, and even Bush knew this. When push came to shove, he tossed his ideology overboard and used government money to bail out financial institutions” – Richard Cohen describing what the GOP wishes would happen to President Obama in Barack Obama: A leader without a cause.

“On one side, we’re supposed to believe that markets are efficient and wonderful; on the other, we’re supposed to believe that anything which constrains buildable land — which, you know, sometimes happens for entirely natural reasons — will send markets into wild irrational swings. Those poor, fragile, omnipotent markets, able to handle anything except mild government intervention …” – Paul Krugman in Desert Bubbles

“The past 10 years will be seen as a time when the United States badly lost its way by using our military power carelessly, misunderstanding the real challenges to our long-term security and pursuing domestic policies that constrained our options for the future while needlessly threatening our prosperity” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Decade When the U.S. Lost Its Way

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